Yogan Baum, no longer a stranger in his adopted country, lived through the triple catastrophe that devastated northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011.

The place is Yotsukura, Fukushima — a sleepy little fishing village just twenty miles from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

He had built a home and a life with his family there. Then the magnitude 9.0 Tohoku megaquake struck.

First it sent him running. Then it sent him packing.

In Ground Zero 01: Earthquake, Yogan relives the terrifying experience of those first moments — the violence, the confusion and the struggle to comprehend what was happening around him.

Awed by the intensity of the event, he had no idea what was yet to come.

The earthquake was only the beginning.

Through memories and personal reflections, Yogan tells the story of a survivor trying to make sense of an experience that shattered his world. His account is deeply personal. He makes no claim to be an impartial observer. He was there, living just twenty miles from what he came to regard as Ground Zero.

For Yogan, Fukushima did not end when the shaking stopped. The years that followed brought new questions about the disaster, its consequences and the way Japan dealt with them.

He came to believe that Fukushima had exposed something far deeper than the failure of a nuclear power plant — a system in which political interests, industry and a complacent media could shape the story told to the public.

These are Yogan’s convictions, born from his experience of living through the disaster and its aftermath.

Ground Zero 01: Earthquake is the first part of The Voice of Fukushima: A Cry from the Heart, a three-part series following Yogan through the traumatic weeks, months and years after March 11, 2011.

The story continues with:

Ground Zero 02: Tsunami and Worse
Ground Zero 03: Home but Home No More